Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tech (Transfer Office)

Stephen Lindstrom, PhD
Nancy J. Cox, PhD
Alexander Klimov, PhD, ScD
Lamorris Loftin, PhD

Since its emergence in 2003, a particularly highly pathogenic avian influenza A virus (H5N1), has reached endemic levels among poultry in several Asian, European, and African countries. As of July 20, 2006, there were 231 reported human infections with high mortality. Although most individuals infected with H5N1 have had extensive physical contact with infected birds, the virus has the potential to mutate into a strain capable of efficient human-to-human transmission. Because this virus does not commonly infect humans, there is little or no immune protection against it in the human population. Genetic analysis of the H5N1 virus in humans shows resistance to existing antiviral medications. These developments have ignited global fears of an imminent influenza pandemic.

Accurate and sensitive diagnostic tests are essential tools for the development of effective surveillance, prevention, and control of H5N1 virus strains. As such, CDC scientists developed a protocol for rapid detection and identification of avian influenza, as well as other types and subtypes of influenza. The diagnostic test can provide results on suspected H5 influenza samples from both human and animal subjects within hours. On February 3, 2006, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued expedited approval of the primer and probe set for the detection of the H5 strain. A patent application was also filed in February of 2006.

The value of the diagnostic test was quickly recognized by both the private and public sector. Between April and June of 2006, the CDC entered into 22 Material Transfer Agreements (MTAs) with public health laboratories on five continents and MTAs with 3 genetic diagnostic companies, Roche Diagnostics, Cepheid, and Biosearch Technologies, Inc. Additionally, the technology was licensed to a multinational biotechnology firm via a Commercial Evaluation License Agreement (CELA) in April of 2006. This technology transfer effort involved significant coordination between CDC and international, state, local, and private organizational partners and has significantly increased global avian influenza pandemic preparedness and response capabilities.

Online information
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tech (Transfer Office)
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dr. Lee M. Hively
Kristopher M. Daley
Kara L. Kruse
Dr. Nancy B. Munro
Dr. Vladimir A. Protopopescu
Russ Miller, Commercialization Manager
Hercules Development Corporation LLC
Tracey Dodenhoff

SeizAlert is a personal-digital-assistant-class prototype device for alerting patients and medical personnel of impending epileptic seizures. SeizAlert provides forewarning of an impending event by wirelessly acquiring brainwave data from four scalp electrodes, analyzing the data, and wirelessly transmitting the results. The technology has been developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) and is covered by five U.S. patents and two patents pending. SeizAlert offers a new treatment paradigm of constant monitoring, rather than continuous medication, thus avoiding drug side effects (e.g., sleepiness, fuzzy thinking, and disorientation) that are frequently as debilitating as the seizure. Timely forewarning would allow preventive action, reduction in morbidity and mortality, and improvement in patients’ quality of life. Indeed, reliable, long-lead-time forewarning allows the patient to stop hazardous activity, lie down in a quiet place, undergo the seizure, and then return to normal activity. Other preventive steps may include taking medication, requesting emergency responders, and contacting the physician. In 2004, Hercules Development Corporation, LLC, licensed the SeizAlert technology and initiated a validation trial on epilepsy forewarning with ORNL and Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2005. The technology partners envision several clinical applications, starting in the epilepsy monitoring unit where forewarnings would allow scheduling imaging during the time of a seizure, testing of seizure blockage by preventive administration of anti-seizure medication, and clinical trials of new seizure medications. SeizAlert was a winner of R&D Magazine’s prestigious R&D 100 Award in 2005.

Online information
FAQs about SeizAlert from CSC ORNL
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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TMA® 6301 and TMA® 4701: Heat Resistant Alloys

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Dr. Govindarajan Muralidharan
Dr. Neal D. Evans
Dr. Ken C. Liu
Dr. Phil J. Maziasz
Dr. Michael L. Santella
Dr. Vinod Kumar Sikka
Christopher O. Stevens
Dr. Ashok Choudhury, Commercialization Manager
Duraloy Technology, Inc.
Roman Pankiw
Nucor Steel—Indiana Sheet Mill Group
Scott Sexton

TMA® 6301 and TMA® 4701 are new computationally designed cast austenitic stainless steel compositions. They have improved high-temperature strength properties and generally cost less than existing competitor alloys. The new alloys have improved creep rupture properties at high temperatures and do not need expensive alloying elements. These alloys have an estimated market potential of about $10 million/year and are being actively marketed by Duraloy Technologies—a producer of high-alloy and centrifugal castings.  Many fabricated assemblies made out of these alloys have been sold to various industrial users. The increased high-temperature strength achieved from these alloys allows industrial processes to operate at higher temperatures which should result in more efficient processes. The longer life will reduce frequency and cost of equipment maintenance, reduce downtime, and thus increase throughput. Estimates show that the use of the new alloys when installed in potential applications in the chemical, steel, petroleum refining, and heat-treating industries will result in substantial energy savings with corresponding cost savings.

The joint development of these alloys was done through a CRADA between ORNL and Duraloy that enabled significant talent leveraging.  Thus far the cooperative effort has resulted in two distinct patentable inventions. The commercialization of this alloy technology has been enhanced by an Option License built into the CRADA that enables Duraloy to obtain a significant competitive advantage in the marketplace. This technology was selected to be a recipient of an R&D 100 Award for 2006.

Online information
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Sunlight Direct LCC

Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Melissa Voss Lapsa
David L. Beshears
Art Clemons
Dr. Dennis D. Earl
John K. Jordan
Randall F. Lind
L. Curt Maxey
Jeffrey D. Muhs
Christina D. Ward
R. Wes Wysor
Larry Dickens, Commercialization Manager
Sunlight Direct LLC
John Morris

Hybrid solar lighting is a dramatic improvement over conventional approaches to bringing sunlight into buildings. The hybrid solar lighting system illuminates the interior spaces of buildings by means of tandem solar and electric lighting sources. The system uses a lightweight, roof-mounted collector to concentrate visible sunlight into a bundle of plastic optical fibers. The fibers are routed to multiple “hybrid” luminaires within the building. The hybrid luminaires blend the natural light with artificial light to maintain a constant level of room lighting. Hybrid solar lighting reduces the cost of lighting in commercial buildings and delivers the other significant benefits associated with natural lighting. ORNL patented the technology in 2003 and licensed it in 2005 to Sunlight Direct, LLC, a local start-up company in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A commercial product became available in 2005. Demonstration units are being deployed at sites across the United States during 2006.

The principal, Dr. Duncan Earl, was granted part-time entrepreneurial leave status by UT-Battelle, LLC, the Management and Operating Contractor for ORNL under contract to the U.S. Department of Energy, and accomplishing the entire transaction required significant coordination with and cooperation from the DOE with respect to management and approval of processes relating to potential conflict of interest. ORNL researchers won an R&D 100 Award in 2006 for the hybrid solar lighting system.

Contact
Sunlight Direct, LLC
1020 Commerce Park Drive
Suite G
Oak Ridge, TN 37830
1-865-483-6624 (phone)
1-865-483-5997 (fax)
info@sunlight-direct.com 

Online information:
View Discovery Channel TV Segment on HSL WMV 5.9MB
Sunlight Direct LCC HSL products, benefits and tech.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory

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Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory

Co-developers:
CAPT Charles Vacchiano (Ret)
LCDR Merrill Rice, DO, MPH

The Reduced Oxygen Breathing Device (ROBD) represents the first significant innovation in hypoxia training since Charles Lindbergh used the Mayo Clinic’s original high altitude chamber to test “bail-out bottles” for WWII pilots. The safe, portable, and relatively economical ROBD helps save lives and prevent the loss of aircraft, and is fundamentally changing the way the Navy provides survival training to jet pilots. The ROBD is being transitioned back to the military through an exclusive licensing agreement between the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL) and Environics, Inc.

      Hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain, can result from a loss in cabin pressure or a malfunctioning oxygen supply, and the pilot has only seconds to recognize what’s happening and respond to this life-or-death situation. Until now, altitude pressure chambers have been the only way to train aviators to recognize the symptoms. While the training has been reasonably effective, it is expensive, inconvenient, and carries remote health risks such as decompression sickness and ruptured eardrums. With the ROBD, trainees can be exposed to hypoxia outside the chamber using a standard aviation mask, gas reservoir system, and unique software program that adds nitrogen to breathing air. At about $25,000 per portable unit, as opposed to as much as $1.5 million for a fixed chamber, training is much more economical and accessible. The second critical advantage of the ROBD is its ability to be integrated into flight simulators.

      NAVAIR PMA-205 has committed approximately $1 million to purchase units from Environics for use in all eight of the Naval Survival Training Institute’s Aviation Survival Training Centers. To date, NSTI has acquired 22 ROBDs and 20 workstations for five locations, with 20 additional devices in line for purchase. The current operational plan is to incorporate the ROBD as one of the required hands-on training stations for RP1 jet pilot training classes. The device also has possible applications, and significant commercial potential, beyond the military. Alaska Airlines is exploring the possibilities of incorporating the device into its training regimen, and recently put 32 pilots and flight attendants through a successful hypoxia training program using the ROBD. Eclipse Aviation, manufacturers of the latest generation of very light jets, has purchased an ROBD system and is including hypoxia training in the purchase price of its jets; Eclipse currently has about 700 orders for light jets from private owner/operators.

      With the transfer of the ROBD technology, hypoxia training is finally catching up with the phenomenal advances in aviation that have been made since Lucky Lindy’s heyday.

Online information:
Environics, Inc. ROBD 2 product data
Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory (NAMRL)
NAMRL ROBD Info
FACTS ROBD News Release

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Developed at SRNL
Funded by DOE, Office of Environmental Management
Commercialization:
BESST Inc.

Technology Transferred
The StrataSampler™ device is an environmental characterization and remediation tool. Its primary function is to collect soil gas and water samples quickly and inexpensively as part of the process of monitoring and remediating underground contamination. This device makes it possible to simultaneously collect discrete samples from multiple depths within a single monitoring well. This lowers drilling costs, shortens drilling time, and minimizes the volume of contaminated soil brought to the surface during the drilling process. Contaminated soil must be treated as hazardous waste and disposed of carefully. Reducing hazardous waste handling also minimizes personnel exposure to contaminated material during drilling and treatment.

The StrataSampler was developed at SRNL. Its development was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Environmental Management. BESST Inc., a second licensee, plans to reintroduce the StrataSampler under a different name with newly integrated components that makes the system more efficient, allows for more sampling ports and permits deeper installations.

How it is being used
The first application outside the perimeter of the Savannah River Site was an application at an Aiken County landfill in Barnwell, South Carolina, where the StrataSampler made it possible to achieve the desired level of monitoring with only 10 wells instead of the 50 wells that were originally planned. The use of the StrataSamplersat this site reduced the drilling time, waste, and cost by approximately 65 percent.

Another 20 units were purchased for use at a Manistique, Michigan, landfill where there was concern about the migration of dissolved and residual organic compounds. Sixteen StrataSamplers were successfully installed with no additional training on the part of the installation crew.

Twelve StrataSamplers ere installed in the Southern Ural Mountains of Russia at a site that has been contaminated with nuclear material, including cesium, strontium, and tritium. The purpose was to monitor the migration of radioactive material in groundwater. Results from this installation demonstrated the effective role the StrataSampler can play in radioactive as well as chemical remediation efforts.

Technology Transfer Mechanism Used
The technology transfer effort resulted in a nonexclusive royalty bearing commercial patent license with BESST, Inc., a company with the highest quality groundwater sampling technologies and services, subsurface monitoring systems, and geological probes.

Benefits to the Recipient and Society
The tangible benefits of the transfer effort is a reintroduced StrataSampler with newly integrated components that makes the system more efficient, allows for more sampling ports and permits deeper installations. The StrataSampler will become commercially available at a time when the failure rates, deficiencies and various problems with competing technologies are evident. The StrataSampler provides a reliable, less complex means of groundwater sampling that will reduce costs and eliminate personnel exposure to hazardous contaminants. The StrataSampler is easy to install and uses standard components, which enhances the flexibility of the sampling and monitoring operation, which could be critical in remote locations in the U.S. and abroad.

Contact Information:
John H. Olschon
Technology Transfer and License Specialist
Bldg. 773-41A, Room 239
Aiken, SC 29808
Tel: 803-725-8125
FAX: 803-725-4988
John.Olschon@srs.gov

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